Pluripotent Stem Cell Education: iPS and ES Cells
Learning frontier life science through experiments, ethics and the work of researchers.
Knowing the terminology and achievements of iPS and ES cell research is not enough to understand how science works. The iCeMS/CiRA Classroom, Try Stem Cell Research!, was developed so that upper-secondary students could encounter pluripotent stem-cell observation and experiments, hypothesis testing, uncertainty, ethical and social issues, and the work of researchers.
Aims of the laboratory programme
- Understand pluripotency, self-renewal and differentiation through observation and experimentation.
- Experience the cycle of hypothesising, testing and revising an explanation.
- Speak with researchers about everyday work, collaboration, failure, funding and ethics.
- Distinguish questions that science can address from questions requiring value judgements.
- Consider frontier research through multiple perspectives rather than expectation or anxiety alone.
Science, ethics and society
Pluripotent stem-cell research raises questions about sources of cells, informed consent, safety in clinical application, equitable access and research reporting, as well as hopes for medicine.
The programme connected scientific knowledge with knowledge about science itself. Students discussed questions that cannot be resolved by scientific evidence alone.
Development into a game
A board-game activity used in the laboratory programme was developed into the educational game Try Stem Cell Research! Players take the role of researchers and experience not only cell differentiation but research funding, conferences, failed experiments and collaboration.
Related award
2014 Prize for Science and Technology, Public Understanding Promotion Category, MEXT The work was recognised for communicating stem-cell knowledge and scientific thinking through an experimental programme for upper-secondary students.
Related paper and official records
Mizumachi, E., Kawakami, M., Kano, K., Wadahana, H., & Toyama, M. (2016). ボードゲーム風幹細胞教育教材「幹細胞研究やってみよう！」の開発 [Development of the board-game-style stem-cell education resource Try Stem Cell Research!]. Proceedings of the Japan Society for Science Education Annual Meeting, 40, 59–60. DOI / official page
Record of the first iCeMS/CiRA Classroom